


That Dizzy Edge

by Harpokrates



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Road Trip!, Slow Burn, cade's man pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 23:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11588760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harpokrates/pseuds/Harpokrates
Summary: For the tf_rare_pair prompt: Cade/Hound-family. All things considered, Cade didn't expect so many robots punching each other on his journey North to Chicago.





	That Dizzy Edge

"Up and at 'em, Yeager."

Cade jerked violently and slammed his forehead into the center of the steering wheel. The horn blared for a second before he pulled himself back, cursing and prodding his face with his fingers.

"That's gonna leave a mark, Hound," he grumbled, fumbling for the door handle. He popped it open and staggered out of the rundown Jeep he had been calling home for the last ten months. His knees folded when his feet his the ground, and he had to clutch at the door to keep from kissing the sandy dirt.

"Thought you humans didn't dent," Hound's massive bearded (it wasn't, not really, but Cade couldn't help but think of the coiling wire as a beard) face hovered at eye level. "What's wrong? Lose your legs?"

"I'm almost forty," Cade shifted onto the running board and forced his left leg out straight, wincing, "I'm not supposed to sleep curled up in cars anymore."

"I'm forty thousand," Hound offered, "I sleep curled up  _as_  a car. Damn comfy."

"Too bad I'm not a giant robot," Cade harshly rubbed down his leg, trying to force his circulatory system to start doing its job."

Hound snorted, then flicked the dust out of his 'cigar'. Case had no idea what it was that he actually smoked. "Need a hand?"

"Huh?"

"Here. Gimme your leg." Hound held out one massive hand expectantly. Cade eyed it, and raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously," Hound curled his fingers, "don't be a bitch about it."

Cade hid a grimace and carefully swung his left leg up into Hound's hand. He was as careful as a giant robot could be, but that didn't mean he couldn't accidently hurt Cade. Hell, even Bumblebee, who Cade had gathered had the most experience handling humans, left poor Tessa's back mottled black and blue. He was damn lucky that he was over fifteen feet tall, because otherwise Cade would have beaten the shit out of him.

Hound handled him gently, and slowly wrapped his fingers around his leg. Heavy static filled the air, making Cade's leg hair stand on end and his ears ring, but his leg went soft, all the tension drained away.

He gaped. "How did you do that?"

"Muscles are just electricity, yeah? Changed the voltage in my fingers."

"You know, people can have heart attacks because of stuff like that."

"You having a heart attack? Gimme your other leg."

Cade rolled his eyes, but stick his right leg out. Hound was just as exceedingly gentle as he was the last time, and Cade was back on his feet in seconds, stooping over to touch his toes.

"Seems like it worked," he said to his knees, the straightened, "thanks, Hound."

"Ah," Hound waved it off, "no problem. We gotta get going."

"Right. Just a sec, okay?"

Hound grunted his acquiescence and lumbered over to prod Crosshairs and Bumblebee out of recharge. Cade didn't rightly know why robots needed something that so closely resembled sleep, especially since they became reenergized via gasoline (or whatever it was their bodies converted gasoline into), but it reminded him of a hibernation mode for a laptop. Drift had been on the last watch shift, and was already awake and alert, staring moodily off into the distance. That guy had problems, and this was coming from the father of a teenage daughter.

Cade jogged across the abandoned scrapyard. It was cool out, particularly for someone who was born and raised in Texas. Next time they stopped near civilization, he was ducking into the nearest gas station and buying a jacket.

He stopped in front of the dented payphone, crossed his fingers, and dropped a dollar's worth of quarters in. They immediately rolled out of the change slot. Cade suppressed a sigh and leaned his forehead against the phone.

"Love you Tessa, I'm so proud of you and I know you're gonna make it." He muttered. He wiped harshly under his eyes. It felt colder, somehow, despite the sun finally peeking over the horizon. Cade shook himself out of his thoughts.

"Come on, guys!" He shouted, cupping his hands over his mouth so the sound carried. Crosshairs rolled out of alt mode, flipped him off, then swung right back into his Corvette shell, gunning his engine and speeding off towards the highway. It was actually a good thing that three fourths of the transformers in their group couldn't stand each other. It was incredibly conspicuous to see three gorgeous sports cars cruising next to a FMTV. Crosshairs' reluctance to play house kept him at least two miles away on the freeway. Drift and Bumblebee hated each other too, but they could at least stand to be within a mile marker. They all drove too damn fast, as well.

It caused Cade's heart to do unpleasant palpitations every time one of them went from zero to one twenty through a school zone.

Hound, at least, could drive without trying to break the sound barrier. He was also the only one who could hold up a decent conversation,but that was a little unfair considering Bumblebee spoke entirely through stolen sound bites. Drift and Crosshairs we're just unpleasant.

Cade hopped in his Jeep and cranked the engine. It turned over, then sputtered and choked. Thick black smoke began billowing out of the engine. His eyes widened, he cussed, then he grabbed the fire extinguisher from the passenger's floor space and scrambled out of the car, popping the hood as he went. He waved a hand in front of his face and pulled the pin, blasting the engine block with retardant.

"Ah," he hacked up greasy smoke, "hell."

He squinted through the smoke and tried to make out the engine block. "Shit."

"And I said hey, what's going on?" A woman's voice sang from Bee's stereo.

"Carburetor's blown, Bee." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Hell. I can't fix this."

"I'm an inventor," Cade's own voice reminded him, "I invent things!"

"Well, I sure as hell don't rebuild engine block out of sticks and stones. Give me an hour or two in my workshop, sure, but I can't do anything out here." Cade frowned deeply and kicked the front right tire. A stream of hot oil squirted up from the ticking engine and his him in the chest.

Bumblebee warbled with laughter. "I hit you once you hit me back."

"Ahhh," Cade threw his hands up and stalked away.

"What's the rush, ladies?" Hound rolled up, followed, at a distance, by Drift.

"Car troubles." Cade pointed to Bumblebee, who held his hands up, baby blues wide. "And the Jeep is being a piece of shit too."

"Hell. Alright, who's up for playing pack mule?"

Drift pulled out, tires screeching. For a FMTV, Hound sure was expressive. The car sank on its tires. "Bumblebee?"

"I just ran, I ran so far away," Bumblebee offered with a shrug, then transformed and followed Drift onto the highway.

"Pantywaist." Hound grunted, then sighed. "Alright Yeager, load up. Can't even blame the kid for bolting."

Cade got his backpack and the duffle containing his other change of clothes and the alien sword gun thing out of the back seat.

"You don't like passengers?" He asked, climbing into the passenger's side and resting his crap on his lap.

"Ehhhhh, can't exactly put it like that. Makes it a bit harder to transform."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Bee knew this fleshy, drove him cross country once. Transformed with three weeks of dirty laundry in his trunk."

Cade stuck his tongue out. "My stuff stays with me. Got it."

Hound chuckled. "I knew I liked you for a reason, Yeager."

* * *

"Hey," Cade rubbed his eyes, "unmarked police car at three o'clock."

"What? Hell." Hound slowed to the speed limit. "Think you can crawl over to the driver's seat?"

Cade unbuckled himself and had his knee on the center console when the sirens started blaring. "No. Fuck."

"Sit back down." The interior of the FMVT hummed, and Cade's arm hair stood on end. A black man, burly and bearded, materialized in the driver's seat. Cade scrambled back, pressing himself against the door.

"What the fuck?"

"Stop bitching, Yeager," the man said in Hound's voice. "And buckle up."

Cade slotted the seatbelt together automatically as Hound pulled over to the shoulder. The unmarked police car pulled over behind them and the officer, a sunburned man with a severe crew cut in a neatly pressed uniform, got out.

He walked over to them and tapped on the window. Cade let his bags slide onto the floor.

Hound rolled the window down and the bearded man leaned his elbow against the window frame. "Yeah? He drawled.

"License and registration." The officer said, in a thick southern accent.

"Not from around here, huh? Yeager, grab the registration."

The glove box popped open against Cade's knees. Dumbfounded, he pressed the papers into the man's waiting hands.

The officer took the papers and frowned at them. "Where's the license?"

"Don't have it." The bearded man admitted with a shrug. "I got my military ID and my six-fifty five though."

The officer (Cade leaned over and read his name tag; he was Officer Peterson) looked up from the vehicle registration. "You in the service?"

"Retired," the man said, "fucked up my leg in," he paused for an oddly long time, "Iraq. Here." He handed Peterson the cards.

"My brother is stationed out there," Peterson's face relaxed as he read over the ID "thirty-fourth infantry."

"Knew a few Red Bulls. Bunch of assholes," he said fondly, "well, I knew them back during the Gulf."

"Nah, they're still assholes. My brother's one of them."

The bearded man snorted. "Heard they're pulling the troops out for the relief effort in China."

Peterson's face twisted. "Yeah, from the fucking robots."

"Sorry pieces of shit," the man said darkly. "We never shoulda let them stay."

Peterson grunted in agreement. "I hate buying cars now. Never know if it's one of them."

"Yeah." The man patted the steering wheel. "Bought this off an old buddy. No way in hell it's one of those fuckers."

Cade stared. Peterson finally seemed to glance around the bearded man's bulk, and noticed Cade.

"You got an ID?"

"Uh." Cade leaned down and picked up his backpack. Peterson flinched towards his gun and Cade froze, throwing his hands over his head.

"Christ." The bearded man cut through the tension. "You're so flinchy. This is Mark. I'm driving him out to see his daughter. He ain't got a license." He tipped his thumb towards his mouth as he said it and Peterson frowned.

Cade's eyes darted between them. "I'm quitting! Just got my thirty day chip." He grinned nervously, splaying his fingers.

"Hn." Peterson frowned. "Your right tail light is out. Get it fixed."

"Will do, officer." The man waved his hand and Peterson walked back to his car. The window rolled up.

"My fucking tail light. No wonder I'm cramping."

"What the fuck?" Cade repeated. "Hound?"

"In the hard light projectors. I hate this stupid thing." The man glanced in the rear view mirror as Peterson pulled back onto the road. "Better keep it on. I don't like you clambering all over me."

"Hard light?" Cade reached out and touched Hound's arm. His fingers buzzed lightly, like he was touching static, but he could feel the coarse hair under his hand. "Weird…"

"I dunno how it works, so don't bother asking."

"Does anyone know how it works?" This was amazing! This was like… lightsaber science!

"Uh, one of the science team, maybe. Que is dead and Perceptor is MIA, presumed KIA. I dunno who else can help you. Maybe Bumblebee."

"Really? Why?"

Hound's hologram waved his hand. It was unsettling how easily he emoted, but it made sense, given that he was a robot in disguise. "He was part of the testing phase, one of the first 'bots outfitted with the system. His is better than the rest of ours."

"Huh." Cade settled back in his seat. "That was some pretty slick lying."

Hound huffed. "I'm stupid, but I got access to the internet twenty-four/seven. You fleshies don't have good cyber security."

"And is this," Cade took the registration papers back, "a hologram too?"

"Nah. That's real. Got pulled over enough times to make it worth printing it."

"And it doesn't get destroyed when you transform?"

"You think anything important on me is a glove box? Ah, hell."

"What?"

"I need gas. This stupid things burns up too much fuel."

They sat in a comfortable quiet until Hound came to the next exit. He pulled off, engine rumbling. Cade took a look at the gas prices and groaned.

"Three thirty-nine? I thought this wasn't supposed to happen anymore?" Cade dug through his backpack and found a wad of twenties.

"Capacity's around fifty gal." Hound said, shutting his engine down. "Diesel."

"I can pay for half that. Cash is running low. We're gonna need to stop by another ATM soon, okay?"

Hound sighed. "Fine. I'm big, Yeager, I can't run on sunshine."

"Then find me an ATM." Cade said, before getting out of the FMTV and walking over to the gas cap. It was on the passenger's side, which was a little odd, but Cade guessed it made sense for an army vehicle. Somehow.

He was halfway through opening the tank and sticking the nozzle in when he remembered he didn't have his card.

"It's just one of those days, huh?" He muttered to himself, walking inside. His hair was longer now, and the police mugshot photos weren't up to date on his appearance, but he still walked in his his face deliberately looking away from the security cameras.

He coughed lightly, and the woman at the cash register looked up from her phone. She was older, with wild makeup and shockingly blonde hair.

"How can I help you, honey?" She said, long nails clicking against the countertop.

"Ah, hi," Cade said, trying to make as little eye contact as possible. "I'd like eighty bucks on number twelve."

The woman glanced over her shoulder at the FMTV and gaped. Then, she squinted at Cade. Cade tensed himself to run. Hell. Bee might not be out of range, but he was too small to donate much of his fuel is they had to run, and Hound couldn't have had that much range is stopping for gas was that urgent.

"Oh, honey," she cooed, "what happened to your face?"

She pointed to his right eye, and when Cade reached up to prod the area, he hissed in pain.

"Oh, ow. I didn't even realize…" he muttered. It must have been from smacking his head against that shitty Jeep.

The cashier looked concerned.

"I'm fine," Cade assured her, "just an accident."

"Oh, what happened?"

"Uh. I, uh, hit my head on a doorframe."

Her expression went from concerned to horrified. Oh, hell. He was such an awful liar.

"You don't have to stay with someone who hurts you." She glanced back towards the FMTV. "You want me to call the police, honey?"

Cade gaped. "What? Hound? Uh. I mean. No, that's not it. Really, this was an accident. Can I pay for my gas?"

The cashier took his money, frowning, and fed it through to the pump. She handed him his receipt. Cade took it, grinned awkwardly, and ducked out of the station.

"Three thirty-nine," he whistled lowly, then grimaced. On his receipt, the cashier had written the number for the local abuse hotline. Cade crumpled it up and tossed in the trash can, then stuck the gas nozzle in the gas tank. He walked back around Hound to the station, and slapped the diesel option. Then, he crossed his arms and waited.

Cade sighed. "Okay. I'm not angry. Breathe in, like Tessa says. Stress is bad for my blood pressure."

Hound's window rolled down. "You know I can hear you, right?"

Cade flipped him off.

"You're pissy." He observed. "Got a reason?"

"Not really." Cade sighed, slumping.

"Miss your daughter?"

"Huh?"

"You were talking about her. Tried to call her this morning too. Ah, sorry, eavesdropped by accident."

"Of course I miss her." Wasn't this surreal? Here he was, on the run from the government, sitting and chatting with a giant robot alien who could turn into a car about his kid. "She's my little girl." Cade struggled to explain. "Do you have kids?"

Hound snorted. "Oh, sure. I've got a bun in the oven right now."

Cade stopped. "What."

"You thought this was fat?" Hound's hologram reached out of the cabin and frizzled out, but it was clear from the motion of his shoulder that he was trying to pat his cargo bay. "Nah. This is my newest little one. We call them newsparks. I think he's gonna be a tractor trailer; take after his dad."

"His what?"

"Prime, Yeager. Why, we've been married for twenty thousand years. All my kids are his. Well, except Bumblebee. Had a drunken one night stand with Crosshairs. His lousy attitude extends to sex, by the way."

"What!?" Were those heart palpitations? Was he having a stroke?

"What?" The hologram looked hurt. "You don't think I could bag a Prime? He was after me for centuries before I said yes, you know. I almost turned him down for Megatron, back when he wasn't batshit, but Prime is just so dreamy. I mean, have you seen his eyes?"

Cade's mouth worked uselessly for a few minutes, trying to digest the idea of robot alien sex.

"I think I'm gonna puke," he said faintly.

"Oh, Sigma, Yeager," Hound wheezed. "I'm fucking with you. We come from the Allspark."

"So you didn't," Cade made an obscene gesture with his hands, "you know?"

"What the fuck does that even mean?"

"Okay. Nevermind." The counter hit eighty dollars, and the gas shut off.

"That's it?" Hound groaned. "I'm gonna get hanrgy."

"How do you know what hanrgy is but you don't know how humans have kids?" Cade said, walking around Hound to grab the gas nozzle. He hopped back in the passenger seat, and Hound pulled out.

"I can barely stand stumbling across one of you meatsacks naked. I don't wanna know how you reproduce."

"Asshole."

"Bitch."

They lapsed back into silence, having run out of the easy insults.

"Tessa used to get sick," Cade began, staring listlessly out of the window. It was different from Texas. Texas was flat until you came across a mountain, all dirt and scrubland, with cacti and tiny, mangled trees. Here, in the middle of the country, it was all corn. Fat stalks of it blocked the the road from both sides, and where there wasn't corn, there were tiny copses of trees, taller than anything Cade had seen outside of pictures. It was green here. So much so that it hurt his eyes. "Right after her mom passed. I was so terrified that she had somehow caught the cancer. I mean," Cade huffed a laugh, pressing his fingers over his eyes. "Cancer isn't contagious. But I thought… something was wrong, something genetically, yeah? God. I was so pissed at Melissa. I was a fucking monster, but I was  _angry_  at her for dying, for leaving us. I was scared she was gonna take Tessa with her, you know? Leave me to live with my mistakes. Not Tessa, never her, but everything else."

Cade turned fully to look out of the window. His eyes felt puffy. Fuck.

"She was so small then, too. Four or five. No, five. This was in two thousand-two. I mean, hell. What the hell did I know to do with a little girl? I was in my twenties, my parents cut contact after Melissa and I got married. I was an idiot."

"So what was it?" Hound asked quietly. Cade shuffled over to look at him. His hologram was looking at the road, but it was clearly for show… for respect, maybe. Hound didn't even have eyes when he was in his vehicle mode.

"Nothing." Cade laughed. "She was faking sick 'cause she didn't like her assigned seat. God, she," Cade coughed to clear his throat, "she was such a little devil when she was a baby."

Hound didn't say anything. Cade appreciated it.

* * *

"Something is following us." Drift said, fingers drumming against his sword. "I can feel it."

"I can feel you're paranoid." Crosshairs flicked a spent casing at him. Drift pulled out his sword and sliced it in half faster than Cade could follow. Half of the casing crashed to the ground, nearly crushing his feet. "Sigma, you're such a freak."

Drift got up and thumbed out one of his swords. "And you are going to be a dead man if you don't stop baiting me."

"Eat me, you oversized drone." Crosshairs twisted to his feet and drew a bead on Drift.

"Hey," Bee snapped, splicing together radio clips into something that sounded almost natural. "Knock it off. If you draw attention to us because of your diode distance contest, I'm shooting out your knees and leaving you for the humans."

Drift had the grace to look humbled, although he carefully concealed a sneer. Crosshairs just flipped Bee off and stalked away. When he vanished into the darkness, Bee warbled a metallic sigh and sat back down.

"Great crowd." Hound muttered. He was fiddling with something called an energon converter. As much as he joked about running on sunshine, it turned out that solar power was a decently efficient way to create energon, which was basically super gasoline for robots. "Hey, Cade. You got little hands, c'mere and help me with this."

Cade looked up from his MRE and swallowed his meat spaghetti. "Huh? Oh, sure."

He wiped his face with his sleeve and put his food onto the rock where he had been sitting. He rubbed his arms faintly, and walked over to Hound. He didn't want to admit it, because he didn't like complaining, but he was getting uncomfortably cold, even in his canvas jacket. At least helping with the massive piece of machinery Hound was tinkering with (which he had been itching to do all night anyways) would give him the excuse to stand near Hound, who was the biggest thermal source Cade had ever met.

"There's a little tube that needs to be connected. Normally I'd grab a minicon for this, but this ain't Cybertron." Hound pointed to an opening about five feet above Cade's head.

"Got it." Cade rubbed his numb hands together and prepared to climb up the converter.

"Stop, stop." Hound held a hand out, palm flat. "You're gonna need two hands. Hop on."

Cade shrugged and carefully climbed onto Hound's hand. Hound steadily lifted Cade up to eye level with the opening and turned on his headlights.

"Thanks." Cade could easily see the disconnected pieces, and he reached in and screwed the hose to the port. The machine hummed to life.

"Alright!" Cade cheered. Behind him, Bee made a faint noise of distress.

"What is it?" Cade turned around to look at him, rushing over, and the converter flared to life and point-ought-eight amps of electricity coursed up through his arm. Cade fell back into Hound's palm, convulsing. His heart was hammering away in his chest. He couldn't think, couldn't breathe. Distantly, he heard Bee shrieking in a high pitched, mechanical language at Hound, who rumbled back in the same clicking tones.

Minutes passed, maybe hours, maybe seconds, but Cade's body finally worked through the extra voltage.

"What," he wheezed, "what'd I miss?"

Bumblebee looked down at him, bright eyes blazing. Hound shifted his hand, supporting Cade as he worked himself up to sitting.

"You moron," he cuffed Hound on the side of the head. A young man's stammering voice explained. "People don't mix with electricity, Bee. Look, I touch that wire and boom, poof, there goes my motor control. It's like… you ever see that video of the guy with the homemade electric guitar? Here, lemme show you…" the audio clip faded.

"Aw shit." Hound gently cradled Cade him his hands. "You still breathing?"

Cade waved a faintly shuddering hand. "It's happened before. Took a dive into an electric fence I was scrapping for parts. Lucas said I was lit up like a Christmas tree."

"You need medical care or something? What do you call 'em? Hospitals?"

"I'm gonna be sore as shit, but I'll be okay." Cade glanced down at his hand. "Hell. This is gonna need something. Bee, can you grab my backpack?"

Bumblebee chirped in agreement and plucked Cade's backpack from the small camp he had made, with the tips of his fingers. He placed it in Hound's palm, alongside Cade. Cade picked through it with his good hand and pulled out a half empty first aid kit. He emptied his canteen over his hand first, then roughly patted it dry with his shirt, wincing as the blistering skin was rubbed. He didn't have any burn cream, so he dry swallowed three ibuprofen and started rubbing antibiotic ointment over the electrical burns. He managed to keep down his yelp of pain, but he couldn't keep his face from cringing up.

"You alright, Yeager?" Hound asked again. His eyes were flickering faintly, something Cade took to mean communication, either with another Autobot, or with the nearest wireless signal.

"Mn." Cade grunted. "Just a burn. Man, I'd kill for some lidocaine right now."

Hound sat back on his heels, careful not to upset Cade's balance. Cade moved on from the antibiotic cream and dug out a roll of bandages—really an old shirt of his, torn to strips—and started wrapping up his arm.

"Why're you doing that?"

Cade opened his mouth to explain but Bee beat him to it.

"It's gotta heal, Bee," said the same young man, "no you can't look at it.. There's like… bacteria and stuff. Or the sun. Maybe? You know I failed biology. You've got Google in your brain; you look it up."

"Burns are touchy," Cade said, with the the wisdom of someone who taught himself MIG welding, "I spent three days in the ICU because I let one get infected. And they blister."

"You humans are fragile." Hound muttered. "Sorry, Yeager. If I'd known you couldn't take electricity, I would have warned you."

"I'm not dead and I'm still upright. No big. But I gotta know, why is the voltage so low? You guys run on at least fourteen, right? And I'm guessing it's really higher than that due to you not actually being cars."

Hound looked at Bee, and they both shrugged.

"I dunno. Ratchet was our mechanic."

Cade stared. "You mean, you don't actually know how you work?"

"Alright asshole," Hound huffed, settling Cade back on the ground, "why don't you tell me how  _you_  work? What's that red stuff made of? Why do you breathe?"

Cade opened his mouth, realized 'blood' and 'cause we need to' were terrible answers, and conceded.

"Okay, I'll take that, but then why do you know how to set up this… energon thingie?"

"Pft. Every military 'bot knows how to set up a still."

"You guys have alcohol?" Cade raised an eyebrow. Hound had had a blast leading him around by the nose earlier and Cade didn't put it past him to try again.

"We've got ethanol. But mostly this is for energon. I'm gonna stick it in my bed tomorrow while we drive, try to soak up some rays."

"It's a solar converter?" Cade eyed the machine more carefully. "And it's efficient enough to make energon?"

"Energon is easy to make. It's, ah," he snapped his fingers. "What is it, kid?"

"I can smell the chemicals!" Bee's radio sang, and he shrugged.

"Ah, whatever it is, it's easy fuel. Your gasoline is more refined than it. We just have systems that can run on basically everything."

Was it weird to want to open up one's friends to see how they worked? That was like… serial killer level weird, right?

"That's amazing," Cade breathed.

"Stop drooling, Yeager or you're gonna lose my backseat."

"Huh?"

"You're sleeping inside tonight Yeager. Barometric's low." And I electrocuted you and I'm feeling guilty, he didn't say. Cade would have said that he had it in his eyes, but he didn't know Hound that well. "Crosshairs squished a few of those dog things too. Coyotes."

"Coyotes don't attack people. Tessa used to chase 'em when they got in the yard. I'll be fine. It's a nice night out."

Hound grunted and waved a hand. "I'm leaving my doors unlocked."

Cade shrugged and waved it off, ignoring the way his throat flushed with heat. It was just the weather. He shivered.

He glanced at his watch. "Ten PM, guys. I'm heading to bed. See you when the sun comes up."

"Night, Yeager."

Bee chirped.

* * *

Three AM.

Three in the goddamn morning.

Cade rolled over, trying to keep his kidneys from committing full-on mutiny.

"We're in this together, you guys," he grunted, muffled by his bunched up jacket. Who knew pillows were so necessary to a good night's sleep?

He pushed himself up and rested his elbows on his knees, rubbing his face with his hands. It was too cold at night, something he knew from a lifetime spent in Texas but was just exacerbated by the change in latitude. His arms were goose pimpled and his ears ached.

Cade glanced around. His fire had burned itself to ashes in the night, but the sky was clear and the moon was full. Crosshairs had come back sometime in the night, and was recharging in root mode under an outcropping of rock, guns clutched in his hands. The other Autobots were in alt mode, parked in a loose circle around Cade's makeshift camp.

_"I'm leaving my doors unlocked."_

Hound's rough voice was too warm, too inviting in Cade's sleep addled memory. His throat burned again.

Cade rolled over, pulling his cheap blanket tighter around himself and willing himself asleep.

He lasted about five minutes before stumbling to his feet. He wiped his hands on his jeans and tried Hound's passenger side. The door opened.

Hound didn't say anything, so Cade didn't say anything, and kicked his shoes off outside, before curling his legs into the footwell. He laid the seat back and rolled sideways into it, making sure he was staring out of the window. It'd just be too weird falling asleep staring at Hound's steering wheel, which he generally considered a 'face'.

Cade closed his eyes and almost instantly started drifting off to sleep.

Before he lost all sense to sand, he heard the doors lock.

* * *

Cade bought a geographic map at the next gas station. The trick was to stay off the road at night, and stay far enough into the plains that no one got suspicious and decided to investigate the giant robots.

They had picked a decent spot, a flattish area with a half dozen tired looking trees.

Cae squinted down, trying to trace a route through Montana.

"We're being followed, fleshie," Crosshairs said, leaning over Cade's shoulder and staring at his map, "pick someplace hard to approach. Lots of open space, with cover just for me. For us."

"What?" Cade jumped. How was a two ton robot so quiet? If Tessa we're here, she'd pin it on Cade slowly going deaf due to his lax attitude towards hearing protection.

Crosshairs looked at him like he was stupid. "I said, we're being followed, fleshie—"

"Not that. I heard you. I mean, what?"

"Saw some tracks this morning. Mechanical. Dunno if this is new or were just a bunch of sorry assholes for not noticing it sooner."

"Have you told anyone else?"

Crosshairs looked at him like he had suggested walking up to Galvatron and, handing over his weapons, and kissing him full on the mouth.

"Right. Shouldn't have bothered asking. Hey, guys!" He cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted.

Bee looked up. Drift twitched from where he was balancing on the tip of his sword and fell over, cursing. Hound laughed.

"What is it?" Bee asked, loping over.

"Crosshairs has something to tell you guys."

Crosshairs glared at him and reached down to flick him. He caught Hound lumbering over, and aborted the action.

"Saw some tracks this morning. They were too worn to ID, 'cause of the rain, but they were mechanical. Big, too." Crosshairs aimed his guns down an imaginary sight. "I say we hunker down and take 'em out."

"You don't even know who it is," Drift interjected.

"What, scared it's gonna be one of your of buddies?"

"Are you?"

Bee got between them before they started really trying to kill each other and caught Drift over his shoulder. Hound pulled a gun on Crosshairs before he could take advantage.

"What, you're following him now?"

"Prime gave us an order." Hound reached up to tap the ash from his cygar. "Fall in line, soldier."

Drift pushed himself to his feet and shoved Bumblebee away, cursing under his breath. He stalked away, just far enough to still be in the conversation.

"Cogsucker," Crosshairs grunted. "It's one 'bot, boss. He's cocky, doesn't think we've noticed. His tracks are obvious. He ain't trying to hide."

"I told you someone was following us," Drift snapped.

"Fuck off, Deception," Crosshairs flipped Drift off. Cade was shocked he didn't lose his middle finger to Drift's temper.

Drift smacked Crosshairs' hand away and drove his knuckle into Crosshairs' chin, forcing him to look up.

"What are you trying to make this about?"

Bumblebee looked nervously between them. He was tough, as far as cute yellow sports cars with big baby blues went, but Crosshairs and Drift looked ready to kill. Hound carefully leaned forwards and tugged Cade back by the collar of his shirt.

Crosshairs moved faster than Cade could see, pulling out one of his SMGs and jamming it into Drift's forehead.

"You fuckin' know what this is about," he hissed.

Drift glanced up at the gun and sneered. "Autobots like you tried to kill me. They failed."

"There's no Autobots like me, mate."

Drift kicked Crosshairs' legs out from under him and drew his two remaining swords, lunging for him. Crosshairs twisted up and emptied his clip into the space Drift had been.

"Down!" Hound hollered, curling protectively over Cade. Bumblebee hurtled over him and took shelter behind Hound's armored bulk. The bullets plinked against Hound's armor, too close to Cade's head for comfort. He crouched in Hound's hand. Hell. One blast from his sword gun would be enough to distract Crosshairs and Drift from fighting long enough for Bumblebee and Hound to tackle and subdue them, but he had left it next to the map.

He risked a glance through one of the cracks in Hound's armor.

Crosshairs slugged Drift, all finesse forgotten in his anger. Drift took the blow, then hooked his arm up through Crosshairs' armpit and threw him. Crosshairs landed on his feet, cat-like, and kicked a cloud of dirt up into Drift's face, coattails flaring in the wind.

Dirt couldn't blind him like it could a human, but it distracted his visual sensors long enough for him to be tackled by Crosshairs.

Crosshairs straddled his chest, raining blow after blow against his face. Drift buckled, twisted, and hooked his leg around Crosshairs' neck, forcing him back.

They were at least a hundred feet from his duffel. Cade slipped ought through Hound's hands and bolted.

"Yeager!" Hound yelled, grabbing for him. Drift fully kicked Crosshairs off of him, and threw him across the clearing. He crashed into Hound, snapping Hound's head violently to the side. Bumblebee whirred in alarm, grabbing Crosshairs in a half-nelson and transforming his free arm on Drift.

Cade made it to his bag and dropped to his knees, desperately searching for his gun. He found its sharp edges through the bundle of clothes and yanked it out, slicing his palms in the process. He brought it up to draw a bead, and a massive slab of metal slammed down from the sky, inches from his nose.

Cade blinked at his reflection. He looked awful.

"Stupid." The metal rumbled. Cade staggered back and landed on a foot.

He looked up, and up, and up.

"Grimlock?"

Grimlock ripped his sword free and ran past Cade, his footsteps shaking the earth. He stabbed his sword into the ground in front of Crosshairs, taking the bullets he was about to fire at Drift. He lashed out and kicked Drift, pinning him under one massive foot. Bumblebee pulled his gun back into his arm, and used his free hand to wrench Crosshairs' gun away from him. Hound was still on the ground, venting hot air harshly, one hand wrapped tightly around his trench knife.

Cade ran over to Hound, who was far enough away from the action that he wasn't as likely to get squished.

"Hound," he ducked to his knees near Hound's head. The left side of his face was crumpled in, in a sick exaggeration of Cade's own black eye. "you okay?"

"You dumbass," Hound wheezed, "I thought you were fucking dead."

Cade opened his mouth, but Grimlock interrupted him, grating voice rumbling across the empty landscape.

"You two wanna fight, you fight me." Grimlock looked down at Crosshairs, still struggling in Bumblebee's grip, and Drift, pinned under his foot. Bee let Crosshairs go.

Big mistake.

He dove for Drift, and when Grimlock stumbled back, awed at the sheer stupidity of it, Drift wormed his way free and pulled his remaining sword on Crosshairs.

Grimlock's foot caught Crosshairs around the middle and punted him off into the distance. He picked up Drift and plucked the sword out of his hand. It looked comically tiny in his hands. He threw Drift after Crosshairs, then hurtled after them himself.

Cade cringed.

Hound lifted his hand up to his face, feeling around for the damage.

"We match." Cade told him.

"Well," Hound grunted, dropping his arm back down, "now people're gonna think I did it on purpose."

Cade wheezed a weak laugh.

"You okay?" Hound shifted his head around to look at Cade. Cade patted the closest part of his face—his undamaged cheek—gently.

"I'm good, big guy."

"Great. I'm gonna go to sleep. These fucking idiots are exhausting."

Cade laughed. "I'll keep watch for you. Return the favor. My doors are unlocked."

Hound grunted in acknowledgement and slowly cycled down. Cade repositioned himself against Hound, keeping watch on the fight in the distance, his gun balanced across his knees.

* * *

Cade cursed loudly and kicked the payphone.

It was only thanks to Joshua Joyce's political influence and the piles of cash he threw around that Tessa had been accepted into a college at all. She was smart, Cade knew that, but it was hard for the daughter of a fugitive to make it past the background check.

She was across the country. Over a thousand miles from him, where it was safe.

Cade dropped the receiver and let it hang, shifting around to lean against the payphone.

"Hurry up, Yeager!"

"Fuck off!" Cade picked up his duffel and slung it around his shoulders. He opened Hound's door and slipped into the passenger's seat, then slammed it shut. Hound shuddered on his wheels.

"Shit. I'm sorry."

"I've had worse." Hound cranked his engine and drove out of the junkyard the Autobots had been hiding in. With Grimlock in their group, it became difficult to find places to stay every night. A giant robot  _T. rex_  was a lot harder to hide than a couple of cars. On the plus side, whatever Grimlock had beaten into Crosshairs and Drift seemed to stick. They still hated each other, but they kept it to the verbal sparring field, rather than throw each other at Hound.

"Take the north exit," Cade said absently mindedly, massaging his knuckles.

"You alright?"

"Not really." Cade's mind caught up with his mouth and he blanched at how bitchy he sounded. "Fuck. Sorry."

"I'm jealous of you sometimes." Hound said, out of nowhere.

"Huh?"

Hound didn't say anything for a long time. They passed the state line from Montana to North Dakota.

"You can have children. We don't have anything like that." He said finally. Cade, who had been drifting to sleep, snapped awake.

"You have the opportunity to raise someone, to nurture them, to protect them. Cybertronians are created fully formed, from the Allspark. We're never children, we're never young." He sounded distant. "I knew an Autobot once. He was naïve; I thought I could teach him, take him under my wing."

He let loose a low chuckle that ended in something stained and painful.

"Asshole died in his first battle. Took after me and charged in head first. Isn't it terrifying, Cade?"

"What?"

"The responsibility. Pouring all your love into one person. What happened when it goes wrong? What happens when they die? Aren't you scared of it hurting?

Cade swallowed. "Yeah. I am. But it's worth being afraid. She's my baby girl; she's worth anything."

"All good things are, I guess."

Cade laughed.

"Are you?"

His laugh died down into a strangled cough. "What?"

Hound didn't say anything, so Cade took a second to puzzle out the sentence.

"I," he said slowly, "scare you?"

"Drop it, Yeager."

"You brought it up. So I'm worth it? What the fuck, Hound? What does that even mean?"

"I said drop it." Hound voice was tinged with the slightest strain of embarrassment. Cade was glad to know he wasn't the only jackass who said dumb shit without thinking.

Cade shifted back to stare out of the window.

"I'm melancholy," Hound admitted. "I'm being a little bitch. It's been an Earth year since Prime left. Imagine you thought your president was dead, and then you found him, and he ran off into space, except the president is also Jesus and he's one of your best friends."

"I didn't know you were religious."

"Eh," Hound sounded more relaxed with the change in topic, "we all are, but it's not like human religion. I can pop open my chest and look at my, what do you humans call it, my soul. We literally come from the divine. There's no question about it. It's basic fact, like science. There isn't a line between science and religion for us like there is for you."

"That's," Cade frowned, " _I'm_  jealous. I stopped going to church after Melissa died. How do you reconcile? Your planet is gone and you're on the run for your lives."

"Yeah, but that was us. Free will is a bitch." There was a frown in his voice. "Prime wouldn't like that."

"Optimus isn't here." Cade shrugged. "Free will, I guess."

"Heh. Fuck off."

* * *

"What the hell did you do to yourself?" Cade grunted, snaking his arm further into Bee's chassis. He tugged, and a scrap of metal the size of his head popped loose.

Bee grumbled and shifted to let Cade sprawl across him.

"C'mon, I'm shoulder deep in your guts. What happened?"

"Dumbass tried to ramp off Grimlock's tail." Hound walked up, carrying a pile of salvaged metal sheeting. "It was pretty awesome 'til he hit the ground."

"Bee? What the fuck? How high did you go?"

"Free falling," Tom Petty crooned.

"Dumbass." Cade slapped Bee's chest. "Nice one."

He shifted his flashlight around and found the disconnected port that kept Bee's legs moving at the same rate. He attached an alligator clip what was basically a spinal nerve, and clipped the other end to the port.

"How's that?"

Bee wiggled his feet in response.

"Great, that'll keep you going until we can find a good scrapyard." Cade looked at Bee's surprisingly emotive face. "Hey, Hound said you knew something about y'all's holograms."

Bee chirped, and a young man with dark, curly hair materialized next to him. Cade jumped.

"Jesus, Bee." He leaned forwards and squinted. "That's amazing."

"Just one of my old tricks," the kid said, in the voice Bee had been mimicking for a while now.

"Who is he?"

"Sam. Uh, Witwicky. Nice to meet you," the kid stuttered, and Bee nodded between him and Cade. The hologram raised a hand, and Cade, feeling silly, shook it.

"He was my first human friend," Bee spliced the words together seamlessly. "I was his first car."

"You modeled your hologram after him?" Cade hopped down from Bee's chest and circled the kid. He looked damn real, in a way that Hound's hologram didn't, and in a way Cade hadn't realized until he saw Bee's hologram. It was like putting on glasses and realizing what you were missing.

Bee warbled a positive.

Cade frowned. "You said he  _was_  your friend. What happened to him?"

Bee shrugged, overly casual, and flicked off the hologram. He stood up, careful not to hurt Cade, but abrupt all the same, and walked off.

"Okaaaay. I guess we're done."

"He's sensitive about the kid." Hound spoke up. He was using his scraps of metal to sharpen his various knives. "Doesn't talk about him."

"At all?"

"Nope."

Cade shrugged, hooking his thumbs through his belt loops.

"Crosshairs started talking shit about how he had a human fetish. I've never seen Bee that pissed."

Cade side-eyed him. "A  _what_  fetish?"

"I like how you ignore the fact that Bee almost beat Crosshairs to death and just focus on the sex thing. How human of you." Hound glanced up at him. "I don't get it. But you humans are a lot like Nebulons, and I knew a guy who partnered up with one of them, headmaster style. I guess that's like love. A little more, a little different."

"How does that,  _y'know_ , work? Bee's like, huge, and," he mimed something obscene, "y'know?" His eyes went wide. "Do you guys even have sex?"

Hound scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"What? Hound? C'mon!"

* * *

They crossed into Canada to get around the Minnesota blockade. The payphones there didn't work either.

* * *

"Grimlock! Stop chewing on the cars! You're giving Bumblebee anxiety!"

Bee looked up from where he was focused on repairing his cannon.

"Okay, you're giving  _me_  anxiety! Oh my god, that was a fifty-five Sunliner! That's a classic!"

Grimlock looked up from where he was disemboweling a rusty old heap of a once beautiful convertible and sprayed spittle on Cade.

"Is this stuff acidic?" Cade shook his arms clean. "Guh, it stinks."

"It's a propellant. For breathing fire." Hound informed him. "Don't light a cigarette, yeah?"

Cade stepped away from him.

Autobot babysitter wasn't quite the career path he had in mind when he dropped out of night school. Then again, neither was scrapyard watchman, which was what he was officially being paid for. Bee was clever enough about the internet to drum up a fake ID and a series of numbers that could parse as a social security number. It also helped that Officer Sherman just wanted someone who wasn't going to run a meth lab out of his precinct.

Cade was, instead, going to run an Autobot smuggling operation.

"Grimlock, look, you're setting a bad example." Cade gestured helplessly to the tiny Dinobots that Grimlock had brought to him one day. He didn't want to know where Grimlock got them, but Hound had waggled his eyebrows and made one of Cade's gestures back at him. Ass.

Drift treated them with some reverence, which made Cade think they weren't just some nightmare born of two trains smashing together (the trains being, in this case, a robot  _T. rex_  and a FMTV), but something from the Allspark. What he didn't understand was why they were small, but Grimlock wasn't giving him any answers.

"He's eating a tire; it's gonna give him indigestion."

"Ah, drop it," Hound advised him. "C'mere, let's take a look at the gun you found."

"The sword thing?" Cade touched the strap of his duffle. He wore it almost constantly now. "I've had it since Chicago."

"Yeah, but I didn't think it was that kick-ass." Hound patted his thigh. "C'mon."

"I'm not a fucking dog," Cade said, clambering up Hound's leg. He pulled the sword gun out and handed it up to Hound. Hound picked it up with the tips of his fingers and sighed.

"Oh, I'm too big for this," Hound grunted. "Hop off. I got an idea."

Cade pursed his mouth, but shimmied down. Hound transformed, and popped his passenger door open. Cade climbed inside, and Hound's hologram phased into life.

"Jesus," Cade pressed a hand over his hammering chest, "warn me."

"Yeah, yeah," the hologram took the sword. He looked dangerous with it, in a deeply competent way. Cade met his too bright eyes and looked down.

"Hn. This is old. Looks like one of the Primal artifacts. All this," he ran his finger down the carvings on the side, "scribble shit."

Cade had to agree. It looked like one of Tessa's finger paintings from when she was in preschool.

"Can you read it?"

"Nah, no chance. This is ancient, even for me. Maybe Drift could read it; he's into that old stuff. Thinks it makes him seem less like an asshole."

"Huh. So how's it work?"

"It's a laser core. A bit like the more primitive version of Bee's cannons. I think it's, uh, like a mini fission? Or maybe something to do with star core science? I dunno. I can take it apart and clean it, but I can't tell you how it works."

Cade shifted in his seat. "Hey, can I, uh."

"What?" Hound looked at him, deep eyes burning.

Cade didn't say anything and instead really out and caught the curly ends of Hound's beard in his fingers. It felt real, even though it don't quite look it. Hound didn't say anything, just watched him quietly and Cade's fingers moved up his beard. Cade held his breath and barely touched Hound's cheek, his fingertips resting against the skin. And it was skin, or at least it was a convincing simulacrum.

"You're warm?" Cade muttered. Hound's skin was bumpy, worn, wrinkled and scarred. He wondered who the hologram was based on. Was this some friend of Hound's, long dead, or was it a passing face in the crowd that Hound decided fit him?

Hound leaned his head into Cade's hand. He didn't break eye contact, except to blink. He didn't even need to blink.

Cade found that he had unconsciously leaned forwards. There was maybe a foot of space between him and Hound now, probably less. If they both leaned forwards, they could kiss.

The thought disgusted Cade as much as it intrigued him, made him feel soft things. This was like the locker room after practice all over again.

"Hound—" Cade said. It was a whisper that wasn't meant to be a whisper, and he cringed at how smokey his own voice sounded.

"Hey!" Crosshairs shouted, and the ground outside shook.

Cade snatched his hand away, and Hound's hologram dissolved into light. Hound rolled down his window, and Crosshairs crouched down to look at Cade.

_Human fetish._

Cade's cheeks burned.

"Hey, fleshie, the little dinoscraps are pissing Drift off. I mean, I'd just let him kill one of 'em and let Grimlock know about it, but I figure I'd get the shit beat out of me if I got him killed."

"Uh." Cade struggled to refocus his thoughts. "Yeah, uh, just let me."

He opened Hound's door and scrambled out, catching his feet in the footwell and biting the dust. He pushed himself back to his feet and grabbed his duffle.

"Okay, I'm going."

He bolted.

* * *

"Hey."

"Hey," Cade didn't look up from his street map of Chicago. He had painstakingly drawn in the major sites of destruction with a series of color coded pencils, and circled the areas of known T.R.F. outposts. This was their fourth excursion into the ruined city, and the first one where they planned to retrieve an Autobot. Bumblebee had picked up a faint distress signal three days ago, and Cade had spent every second of those seventy-two hours planning on how to make in in and out alive.

"You got a second?"

Cade finally looked up. Hound was standing over him, blocking out the brightest parts of the blazing sun.

"Uh, sure."

"Climb up to the roof. It'll be easier that way."

Cade felt himself go pale. Maybe it was just a lifetime of innuendo, but he couldn't help but picture certain  _things_  he had been trying not to imagine since… whatever had happened two weeks ago. He wasn't succeeding.

He rolled his shoulders back and walked over to the dilapidated fire escape, feeling more confident than he actually was.

Hound had set up a little table on the roof, with an ancient corded phone in the center of it. He was leaning against the workshop, absently smoking his cygar. He gestured to the phone with his free hand.

"I can get you thirty seconds," he started, " but after that I can't keep bouncing the signal. And she won't be able to say anything, either. It'll ping us based on her cell phone if she does, so I cut communication on her end. Sorry. She can hear you though, and that won't be traced or tracked. She'll be safe from monitoring."

Cade stood next to the phone, gaping.

"Hound, what…"

"Call your daughter, Cade." Hound's voice was gentle.

Cade swallowed, and wiped his sweaty hands on his jeans. He picked up the phone, waited for his hands to stop shaking, and dialed the number he had ingrained into his memory.

The line clicked. Cade grinned wide enough that his cheeks hurt, and he could play off the watering in his eyes to the pain.

"Tessa?"


End file.
